This invention relates to a laboratory tube cap presenter in the form of a machine that automates the task of orienting and positioning the cap of a laboratory tube, typically a test or sample tube that is processed by an automated or robotic tube handler. A tube handler moves one or more laboratory tubes from station to station for any of a variety of laboratory procedures. Frequently, the laboratory tube is capped at some step in the procedure necessitating the cap to be positioned at a pickup location before capping.
There exist tube cap feeders that position and orient tube caps for pickup by an automatic tube handler. However, the task of feeding tube caps from a supply to a robotic tube handling apparatus becomes substantially more difficult when the height of the tube cap is less than its diameter. For such a condition, the feed process is challenging because the tube cap can easily become disoriented when in a stacked column. The disoriented tube cap can then jam the feed mechanism, halting the automated tube handling process.
The laboratory tube cap presenter of this invention is designed to feed tube caps, including the difficult to handle cap that has a height that is less than the diameter of the cap, to a location and in an orientation to be transferred to a capping station. The tube cap is then typically transported to a capping station by automated tube handling apparatus where the tube cap is installed on a laboratory tube by a capping mechanism.